Knowing swing mechanics is good.
For me – a golf pro.
Thinking about swing mechanics when playing golf is bad.
For you – the player.
We all know that too many swing thoughts, or thoughts in general means bad golf. A few years back I did some research. Nothing new there. I’m forever doing research on stuff golf related. Anyway, geek mode aside, I came across a professor. Her name is Gabriele Wulf. A professor of kinesiology. She produced research proving that the more our thoughts are projected away from the body like the target (distal), the better the shots become. The more proximal our thoughts or intentions are the crappier the shot.
Proximal – close to the body or focusing on body movement.
Distal – focus on target or interim target.
One delved into this deeply and came across Fred Shoemaker of Extraordinary Golf. Then Manuel de la Torre. Then Ernest Jones. All teachers of a distal nature.
What’s my point?
Next time you’re out on the range focus solely on a target and hit the ball at it. Evaluate the results. How many times did it go at the target? Forget great strikes, just focus on moving the golf ball to the target.
This is not a post decrying swing mechanics…Odin knows I am a studier of such things but golf is hard. Don’t make it more hard by having too many thoughts!
Leave a Reply